Space and Time

∆t=m∆v/F

"Hey Aika, pass me a ruler?"

I've barely walked into Lev's house and he's already ordering me around. I roll my eyes and sigh dramatically as I walk over to his backpack in the corner of the room and fish out his ruler. "Hey, Lev, I'm good! How are you?" I say sarcastically as I toss him his ruler. He fumbles a bit catching it and I snicker at him. He makes a face at me and goes back to sketching something.

"I thought we were at that point in our friendship where we can just move past the pleasantries?" he says, with a lifting intonation.

"Uh-huh, whatever," I respond dismissively. I sit myself down beside him. "What're you drawing?"

Lev groans. "A shear force diagram. Part of an assignment for Civ," he adds.

"You invited me over so I could watch you do your college homework?"

"No, I took time out of my busy study schedule to be your emotional support when you check the NCC matchups."

I freeze at the mention of the matchup schedule. I haven't been checking for updates on it. As excited as I am for finally being in the most-watched fighting championship in the country, Takumi's words have been haunting me. The fighters in this competition passed the same bar test I did. I busted my butt training for this event and getting in was far from a walk in the park. Every person I face, regardless of their figure, is the best of the best, and if I'm overconfident, I'll lose before I even know what hit me.

"Hey, Earth to Aika? You ok?" Lev is suddenly waving his ruler in front of my face. He sounds concerned. Great. I must have been silent a tick too long. "I'm serious when I say I'm emotional support. I know you can be... frenzied with these kinds of things."

"Wow, gee, thanks."

"You'll be fine. You haven't lost a match in... in forever. You'll kick their ass, whoever it is. As long as it's not Evren right off the bat. Or that Kevin guy, he looked pretty scary. Or Lyra, I heard she paid big bucks for international training or some shit."

I sigh. "You're not really helping, Lev." My hands are starting to feel antsy but I shake them vigorously to shake the feeling off. Lev puts his materials aside and gets up to grab his laptop.

"Right, right, sorry. Ok, we're checking right now and getting this over with. Aika with no confidence and a bundle of nerves is not who I put my money behind," Lev says as he sits down on the floor beside me and starts up his laptop. Before I know it, we're at the official NCC website and Lev's deftly clicking through the submenus to get to this year's matchups for round one. I don't take my eyes off the screen while Lev scrolls down to my weight division.

My name finally appears at the end, next to a 'Gabriel Lavoie.' Opponent number one. The first that needs to fall if I stand a chance of facing off against the Commander of Space.

"You and Evren are on opposite ends of the table. That probably means you won't have to face her in the points tally," Lev says. There's relief in his voice. "That's lucky. They usually match up adjacent winners and adjacent losers when they do the next round's matchups. You... actually have a chance at matching Evren's points total," he adds, in slight disbelief. I smile mischievously.

"So, if I win all five of my points fights, I'll tie with Evren for division champion."

"Yeah." Lev looks up at me and catches my grin. "Yeah... you lucky little shit," he laughs.

I hold up a victory sign, immediately feeling my confidence return. "Then we'd both qualify for the grand champion's battle royale," I finish Lev's line of thought out loud.

"Now that's a tiebreaker I'd pay big money to see," he says, his eyes lighting up. "Undefeated Commander of Space, versus the newcomer who fast-forwards time. A Battle of Unusuals."